There are good 4x discs, 8x, and 16x. It all depends on the brand. Taiyo Yuden 4x dvd’s will burn at 8x, and sometimes 12x with better quality than some of the 16x rated dvds (depending on manufacturer). Best advice is just to use good quality media (Verbatim (MCC)), FujiFilm Made In Japan, or Taiyo Yuden) Minimum quality I would go RITEK G05’s, and that would only be for copies for personal use, and not for storage or recovery. It isn’t the speed that counts, it’s the quality…

There are good 4x discs, 8x, and 16x. It all depends on the brand. Taiyo Yuden 4x dvd’s will burn at 8x, and sometimes 12x with better quality than some of the 16x rated dvds (depending on manufacturer). Best advice is just to use good quality media (Verbatim (MCC)), FujiFilm Made In Japan, or Taiyo Yuden) Minimum quality I would go RITEK G05’s, and that would only be for copies for personal use, and not for storage or recovery. It isn’t the speed that counts, it’s the quality…

First of all thank you for your answer harley2ride!(and all the others :))

I am sorry but I have one more question.I have a store near me that has Verbatim DVD and I will buy them but u are saying that there are good and 4x discs, 8x, and 16x and I don’t know which speed DVD Verbatim should I buy and in which speed shoud I burn them to have the best quality.
I would like to remind that my DVD+RW has the ability to write till 16x.

I burn all my dvd’s at 16 speed and if there is a loss of quality, none of us eagle eyes here have seen it yet.

To which kind of quality do you refer? The image and sound quality of a Video DVD can’t be affected by a bad burn. Either it runs perfectly with 100% quality, or it stutters and has major disturbances in image and/or sound, which isn’t a loss of quality anymore, but makes the disc unviewable.

btw,
because the 716UF is a usb 2.0 drive, one cannot burn faster than 8x regardless of media. It is a limitation of the usb interface and has nothing to do with the drive. Do a transfer rate read test with Nero and you’ll see what I mean.

because the 716UF is a usb 2.0 drive, one cannot burn faster than 8x regardless of media. It is a limitation of the usb interface and has nothing to do with the drive. Do a transfer rate read test with Nero and you’ll see what I mean.

No, it is not true.

What is true is that with many “unofficial” USB2 enclosures you don’t achieve the max speed and often have to stick at 8x and 16x, but with my LG GSA-5163D I have no problems in reaching 16x, both with USB2 and Firewire interface (image below is with USB2).

hmm, interesting.
My friend has a 716UF and it gets maxed out @ 8x, maybe it’s his usb card?

eltranquil:

No, it is not true.

What is true is that with many “unofficial” USB2 enclosures you don’t achieve the max speed and often have to stick at 8x and 16x, but with my LG GSA-5163D I have no problems in reaching 16x, both with USB2 and Firewire interface (image below is with USB2).

Generally, the only difference between 8x and 16x DVD blanks is price. I imagine you’ll find the 8x rated ones cheaper. As for burn quality, that depends on the burner, firmware, media and speed you burn it at. If you get quality media, it may let you burn it faster than its rated speed of 8x. Since you have the 716UF and likely have Plextools Professional, click on the Drive Settings>Advanced (tab)>Media Quality Check once you put in a blank DVD. Select the speed you want to test it at, then start the test. With some Taiyo Yudens (example, yuden000t02-00) and Verbatims (MCC003), the test may tell you “the media is judged as good” at the speed you tested it at. Therefore, it is possible you could put in an 8x speed-rated DVD and the Media Quality check will tell you you can burn it at 12x. It is a good idea to always run this test on every DVD blank BEFORE you burn it, so you’ll know if you can write it faster than its rated speed of 8x (for an 8x DVD) or not. It’s only about 30 seconds long, so it’s a good investment and idea to run, which will also tell you if you can write it faster than the rated speed or not.